Photo Editing Blog

Amazing historical photos colorized and brought back to life

Nowadays the humanity lives without thinking about what it was long ago. But this is our roots, our history. There are many historical monuments, such that have value. It could be books, objects, sculptures, paintings and photographs. The photo is the youngest of historical monuments. History of photography is only about 200 years old, but during this time the photography art managed to capture so many interesting things that must be seen by our own eyes. Of course, today, with increasing of digital technology, we are much easier to be photographed, quality conveys all things we want. However, many years ago pictures were not even colorful, and what about quality of the photo? To be honest, the photography could not convey all the charm of the atmosphere of that time. When we look at black and white photos, we cannot get rid of the feeling that things or people, which are depicted was very long ago and look unrealistic. Many people also have strange feelings that in the past, the world was actually black and white.

What should you do?

But today, thanks to technological progress, we can easily restore photos and make them colored. With a variety of color filters, the shot becomes more realistic. It is not changed beyond recognition, only adds a palette of colors that can spice up a photo. Sometimes, black and white photos create a feeling of remoteness, such relatively recent events as a wedding of our grandparents, or the Second World War. But now, with the advent of new technologies, this barrier became overcomable, thanks to the ability to recreate realistic colors in black and white photographs. Thus, we can look at the past through the prism of the present. There are many services that restores vintage black and white photos and adds color in them. These services can give new life to old photos, which are faded, cracked and become dirty over the years. They give us a glimpse into the century-old events and see the world of the past. Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Audrey Hepburn, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Chaplin, how did they look in real life? What about to immerse yourself into the atmosphere of retro, to travel a little bit in time and see how everything looked in the guise of black and white photos?

Let’s turn to the masterpieces - photos from the past in color

Photo, which you see visually represent a picture of the past. It depicts two women, which are employed by the ice delivery service. Picture was taken in the 1918. Earlier, it was used by people as the refrigerator. Ice blocks were in chambers, where they were food and it was easier to store the food. Certainly the color photography was out of a question at that time. Anyway the original photo is in black and white. But you can see how much the picture needs some colors. Therefore, colorful photography, which was proceeded by the photo restoration services has definitely gotten an atmosphere. Pay your attention on how many details are there. Look how beautiful the ice is, all hot spots and cracks proceeded professionally. Girls’ overalls in color look much more attractive, besides we don't need to peer and guess what color their overalls are looking at the shade of gray. Even rust on wheels conveys the realism of photography. This picture is a time machine. Look at this beautiful hat! It looks amazing. This is how the uniform of the past looks like. This is how look photos from the past in color.

Another photograph depicts a world-known actress Marilyn Monroe. This is one of those historical photos colorized and brought back to life that will make you hold your breath. As you may have noticed she looks more real on the colorful picture. As if she averted her eyes, but she is about to raise them and smile. Photography is well proceeded. Her hair, her eyes -everything is in color now, and it looks wonderful. Her dress, as you may have noticed is composed of many little sparkles, which look amazing in color. Many hot spots create her image, which is unique. Her famous red lips are not very tempting on black and white photography, aren’t they? If you look at her skin, the color palette is composed of many colors of skin tones.

Rare historical photos in color with our favorite celebrities.

Not only portraits can look great. Buildings, cities, some attributes – all these historical photos colorized and brought back to life will look like a true masterpiece. Century-old photos of the city, certainly deserve to be proceeded and become live. Breathing life into them and resume the old picture, you'll be satisfied with the result for sure. Look at the wonderful photo restoration samples.

of the before and after pictures. You can see Times Square imprinted on photos in 1957 year. The abundance of paints in this picture is such a delight for our eyes. Hot summer, street full of sunshine, advertising posters - everything is all part of the atmosphere of well forgotten past. The lights of the city posters, uniforms of musicians, all this is handled with such care that if we hadn't seen the original photo for sure we would think that the colorful photo is the original. Pay your attention the fact that the musicians are in the vehicle harnessed by horses, but in the left corner there are cars in the background. Yes, picture definitely conveys the atmosphere of the past, as it was. How much has surrounding changed now? People at the bus stop are quite different from people of our time, not only because of clothing, but also they have another poses. Advertising of Pepsi when it just appeared as the brand. Just think, something is changing, and something has survived until now.

The next image is one of the most popular historical photos colorized and brought back to life, it depicts the beloved guy with small growth, but with the great talent - Charlie Chaplin. In the pictures he is not alone, it is world known Helen Keller with him. The pictures convey a meeting of the famous writer, political activist Helen and Charlie Chaplin. Such touching can be easily understood, if you know that Helen suffered serious illness and lost her hearing and vision in childhood. Therefore, in this photo, she gets acquainted with Charlie Chaplin with her hands. This makes the picture an incredibly warm. A color version of the photos makes the picture even warmer, all of this is achieved by adding warm shades. Lucky Charlie and curious Helen, sun glares covering the yard, all this is so beautifully conveying the picture of the past that you unwittingly begin to smile. Magnificent spectacle, adding colors to the picture, Helen’s and Charlie’s meeting doesn't seem so unrealistic. Pay attention to the quality of the work of restorers, at the pictures all the details carefully worked out. Good job on light and shadows. Clothes and skin also look wonderful.

And here's another eccentric personality, which certainly will remain forever in the history of mankind. How wonderful that Albert Einstein found the time to do a couple of pictures, surely had hard schedule, most of his life he was busy with physical and theoretical tasks. Everyone knows about Albert Einstein and I'm sure many people would like to see a genius not on a black and white photo, and in color too. Comparing the two pictures, we can see that not only colors make photo better, but the quality of the photos is definitely improved. Definitely the work of a professional. Do not stint compliments, admit that the picture has become much better. And it does not seem to us highly old, now it seems as if it was taken yesterday, but it retained the spirit of the time. Like we have moved in the past and got to the presentation of Albert Einstein, just at the moment when he invented something new. Truly magnificent spectacle. Enjoy its beautiful old fashioned suit, gray hair, each wrinkle was qualitatively processed by professional restorers. You can read how to proceed old pictures by yourself, just read Vintage celebrity photography – How to repair old photos in Photoshop.

Below there is a picture of a girl from Louisiana. Girl is holding an umbrella, which seems protects her in a sultry and hot summer day. Picture was taken in 1937, it is pretty long, am I right? Comparing black-and-white photo and colorful photo, picture in color WINS. Despite the fact that umbrella is black, warm brown shades are dominated on this picture. Of course, the restorer took into account the fact that the sun shone directly on the umbrella. On the black-and-white photo it is not very noticeable. Photography became what it should be only in color. It became warm and sunny, filled with yellow, brown and beige colors with pastel and sepia color palette. Face and skin proceeded wonderful, picture looks like a professional photo, quality is much better than the original. The atmosphere of the past conveyed 100%ly. Applause for the restorer!

And of course the world jazz legend - Louis Armstrong. Picture that you see is unusual as Louis is. On a photo there is Armstrong playing for his wife. They are in Egypt and the photo in color looks quite modern, which cannot be said about previous photographs, where old-fashioned background plays a key role. Here all the old-fashioned things are only wife’s clothes. Sphinx, located on the bank of the Nile, has still not changed, like the pyramids. However, on a black and white photo, Louis and his wife look not alive at all. Black-and-white photo can’t convey everything that colorful photo can. Picture is strong and unusual, such rare photos must not be forgetting and if it is well proceeded with colors, it will bring a lot of aesthetic pleasure. Only rare historical photos in color will satisfy you in such a way.

And here are world-known great leaders. This is really one of the very rare historical photos in color, because it represents the moment of creating history. Stalin and Churchill with a pretty happy faces are in Livadia Palace. It happens during the Yalta Conference in February 1945, here in colorful variant restorer made a lot to process, because in photographs that are historical value, you cannot make mistakes. Pay attention to the color of the skin and clothing. Each button glitters. Stripes on the pants of Stalin are red, which is very hard to understand on black-and-white photo. When we look at a colorful photo, we are permeated with the spirit of that time. Restorer approached this case responsibly, because it does not take away the glare from the flashlight to make images better. Photography has retained its realism.

And what about the building of the Golden Gate Bridge? In the days when it was just building, there was not yet color photography. The bridge is red the sky is blue like a water, it's all in black-and-white picture is difficult to see. Each glare on the water, every detail of the bridge - everything is carefully handled. Photo looks more realistic and lively. This is especially true for nature. Water and sky are beautiful in color.

Don’t neglect with restoration, it can surprise you.

The process of color photos is very laborious and depends greatly on the professionalism of the person who is working. All sorts of colors formed from different shades of gray, black and white. Also when dealing with historic photos, a lot of time is spent on the examination of the facts and details, which deal with storyline. For example, to find the natural hair color of Marilyn Monroe, it is much easier to ask people who knew her personally, than study gradient grey. Just find photo restoration prices that are acceptable for you and enjoy amazing work.

You should also not underestimate the importance of good old guessing method that is widely used while creating photos from the past in color. However, even with all the necessary information about any historical photographs, it is impossible to achieve 100 percent match colors. Nevertheless, such black-and-white images in color allow us to get in touch with the past, discern details that were previously invisible. If you don’t want to leave us, you can read Best photo restoration examples - they know how to restore black and white photos.